Media magazine the Drum recently reported that contact lenses could give people social media updates in the future.
These 'info-vision' lenses use a teeny wrap around wi-fi antenna with itsy bitsy LEDs relaying the information right in front of your eyes. At the moment its only been tested on rabbits, the animals most known for their excessive and obsessive twitter habits.
To be fair the development is only at stage one, dots, but how long before we're onto Torchwood-style eye texts like those used by fictional ass kicking working mum, Gwen Cooper? With the advancements being made in facial recognition technology, the addition of a tiny camera to lenses could make the world could be a very different place.
It could be brilliant: surgeons able to see from continents away, scientists to follow research, emergency services able to see where their people are, families connecting... or it could be the start of eye popping advertising and the abundance of trivial status updates. LOLZ!
Futurama has already predicted a future where adverts are beamed right into your mind as you sleep. Contacts lenses with internet messages seem like the first logical step in the journey for marketing to invade your every waking moment before they get started on your dreams.
Imagine a shiny tomorrow where NHS contacts have a pop-up ad for car insurance every time you blink, ironically pushing up said insurance as drivers veer off the road distracted by a cuddly meerkat dancing around their eyeballs.
On the other hand advertisers have been master manipulators since the dawn of time. John Lewis has us bawling from our sofas as a wee Scottish boy counts down the days til he can give his parents his very own home-made austerity friendly Christmas present (unless he went down to John Lewis on his own and bought them a gift, which raises questions about his parents who let a 7-year-old wander off in a shopping centre).
But the kid's good, the advert is good and I'd say most of us who like Christmas enjoyed it. So when it comes to those adverts being beamed into our dreams maybe we should just lie back and enjoy it, it's basically a £5 million 45 second mini film with some store name attached, for free! And it might interrupt those spider-mice nightmares.
As for contact lenses shoving stuff into brains via our eye sockets, don't we let technology do that anyway? How many times a day do we check twitter, facebook, email, phone messages... how many times an hour? Open any glossy women's magazine and roughly the first 30 pages are advertising some unpronounceable Belgravia-mortgage priced perfume made from yak milk and kamikaze flowers or an all powerful lipstick so intense and scientifically advanced your lips will be a super shade of disgraced MP blush red long after you die of old age and no longer have any lips. Doesn't mean we'll buy any of them.
Plus it might be handy to learn things without looking like your learning things.
However remember to take your contacts out before X factor starts or the sheer number of running commentary inane facebook status updates might make your eyes bleed. Or better yet un-friend those people immediately for the greater good.
Either way, there's a storm coming...